NLRB Judge Throws Out Kaiser Elections
New Vote for 43,000 California Workers
by Cal Winslow
Jul. 20‚ 2011
Beyond Chron
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just thrown out the results of the September/October 2010 representation election at Kaiser Permanente, the huge California based Health Maintenance Organization. The ruling, by an administrative law judge, has handed California healthcare workers a stunning victory. In that election, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) defeated the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), the new union challenging SEIU in the healthcare industry. The 2010 election – involving 43,000 Kaiser service and tech workers - was marred by a SEIU campaign of lies, fear and intimidation. The election itself was estimated to have cost SEIU between $20 and $40 million dollars – more than $500 per vote.
NUHW appealed, charging SEIU and Kaiser with a host of unfair labor practices, above all with collusion in denying service and technical workers a free and fair choice election, relying, crucially, on Kaiser’s illegal decision in 2010 to withhold scheduled wage increases for new southern California NUHW members.
In her July 18, 2011 decision, Washington DC Judge Lana H. Parke ruled that SEIU had indeed “interfered with unit employee’s free and uncoerced choice in the election.” Underscoring the significance of her ruling, Judge Parke explained, “The Board does not lightly set aside representational elections…There is a strong presumption that ballots cast under specific NLRB procedural safeguards reflect the true desires of the employees.” She then ordered a new election so that workers will have “the right to cast their ballots as they see fit…in the exercise of this right free from interference…”
The vote, taken in September/October 2010 was the largest union election in the US in the last seven decades.
NUHW spokesman Leighton Akio Woodhouse hailed the decision as a “total victory for our members – SEIU’s whole campaign was dependent on Kaiser’s violation of the law.”
In early 2010, NUHW Southern California nurses and professionals successfully challenged SEIU in NLRB administered elections. Kaiser responded by unilaterally denying these workers scheduled contractual wage increases, increases guaranteed, according to labor law, even when a union is replaced by another
Judge Parke’s ruling drew attention to the conduct of Kaiser Permanente Regional President Ben Chu who reinforced SEIU’s illegal threats during a large employee town hall forum prior to the election. SEIU “was joined in its warnings by Kaiser’s President [Ben] Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses. “
The ruling focuses on SEIU. The withholding of wages, subsequently found by the NLRB to be illegal (back wages increase were ordered to be paid) gave SEIU a key opening for a barrage of misinformation.
Here’s just one example from a SEIU campaign leaflet: “After Southern California RNs and pros voted to join NUHW, here’s what happened: They lost their 2% raise in April. That means a loss of more than $1600 a year for some pros and RNs… They are no longer eligible for up to $2000 a year in tuition reimbursement…” Parke noted “30 disseminations of this statement in as many facilities.” It was just one of many. It was a lie.
“We won,” says Jonathan Siegel, the Oakland lawyer who led NUHW’s appeal. “I don’t want to quibble, she didn’t go far enough.”
Siegel believes Parke erred in not finding Kaiser also at fault. “It is clear that Kaiser and SEIU worked together to have raises come due precisely at election time, while arguing a NUHW victory would negate them.”
“But we won, they lost! SEIU will no doubt appeal, that will take 6 to 12 months, we may cross-appeal, but I’m certain the ruling will stand, so we’re looking for a new election in 2012.”
This California conflict remains, I’ll argue, the most important issue in US labor today, not as spectacular as the February days in Madison, to be sure, but ongoing and stark in its implications –can workers stand up to corporate power? With unions? What kind?
The California healthcare union dispute stems from the 2009 trusteeship of SEIU’s California local, the 150,000 strong United Healthcare Workers- West (UHW), then a militant, progressive union, now a shambles.
The California healthcare workers took issue with SEIU’s corporate structures and strategies, above all its back-door wheeling and dealing with healthcare corporations and corrupt politicians – policies aimed at increasing members (read dues payers) at any cost, most often at the expense of the rights and standards of its own members, healthcare workers.
They objected as SEIU spent lavishly on politicians (Blagojevich in Illinois) signed ten year contracts (in Washington State) gave up the right to strike (in California nursing homes), abandoned organizing drives (in Santa Rosa), sabotaged healthcare reform (with Arnold Schwarzenegger), ignored staggering intern corruption (LA local 6434) – all with the justification that cultivating friendly employers and politicians was the road to grow and influence. They are still doing it.
Today the healthcare corporations - profit and not-for profit alike - are as voracious as any. There is no recession for them. Kaiser reported a net income of $921 million for the first quarter of 2011, with reserves of more than $12 billion. Still, last month it announced it would raise premiums for more than 300,000 Californians. Kaiser officials claimed this would amount a 10.7 increase, but consumer groups predicted increases of up to 17% for some subscribers.
At the same time, George Halvorson, the CEO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals received compensation of $6.7 million.
“What is their justification for causing economic hardship on 300,000 people?” asks Woodhouse. “They’re doing incredibly well financially (and) sitting on huge reserves.”
Still Kaiser wants concessions and SEIU is handing them out. Worse, while the nation’s second-largest union announces one sham national political campaign after another, it has virtually abandoned its UHW members. Roy Chaffee, a call center clerk at Kaiser’s Vallejo call center, reports that “SEIU has withdrawn staff, they’re not visible, we have to fend for ourselves, with Kaiser taking full advantage – the changes have been unprecedented and all detrimental.”
Angela Glasper, Kaiser Antioch, fired executive board member of pre-trusteeship UHW, says, “We have not seen them /SEIU/… we get no representation at all. And we have people getting fired, some with 20 years on the job. It’s a big thing.”
And NUHW? According to NUHW’s John Borsos, “We are already working for the new election – but we’re mostly doing what unions are supposed to do, fighting back against employers demanding concessions, fighting for better standards for our members. And organizing. I have to say -in contrast with far too many unions today – we’re not rolling over in the face of employer demands for concessions. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations for several thousand healthcare workers.”
And it’s not just about talk. On May 18, 2011, 2500 NUHW members struck Kaiser in Southern California: 1100 nurses and 100 professional (social workers, therapists, dieticians, medical technicians) and picketed Kaiser’s Los Angeles medical Center in Hollywood, rejecting concessions and demanding a decent contract in a powerful display of solidarity.
On June 21 In Salinas, 850 NUHW members struck the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. The day- long strike, the first ever in the hospital’s 58-year history was in response to stalled negotiations with hospital management workers. NUHW is fighting plans to cut more than 100 direct-care positions and trim pension and healthcare benefits for new hires.
It is important to note that in each strike, SEIU sent multiple mailers to the workers involved, urging them to cross picket lines.
At the same time, NUHW is joining with other workers, community and consumer groups to expose corporate greed. At Salinas Valley NUHW members revealed the fact that Samuel Downing, outgoing chief executive, was granted a retirement package that included $5 million in supplemental payments plus a $150,000 annual benefit.
These struggles are critical. NUHW is rebuilding at a time when the situation of workers is increasingly desperate; they come at a time when it ought to be self-evident that concessions don’t work; they come at a time when the political class, here in California, across the nation, internationally, is singing just one song: austerity!
There is, however, an alternative. The NLRB ruling on the Kaiser election will strengthen it. “It was a shot of hope,” reports Glasper. “ People are smiling today, we’re rejuvenated. We still are the union. They tell us we our voices don’t count. We remember, they do.”
“This ruling is a tremendous vindication for us,” says Chafee. “It is a vindication for thousands of honest healthcare workers, the victims of the SEIU – we are excited and hopeful, we can still regain our union, we can restore our economic security, we can regain our voice and do the job we want to do – take care of and defend the rights of our patients.”
Cal Winslow has written extensively on the subject of the SEIU and NUHW. He is the author of Labor’s Civil War in California, PM Press and an editor of Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt From Below during the Long Seventies (Verso, 2010). He is a Fellow at UC Berkeley, Director of the Mendocino Institute and associated with the Bay Area collective, Retort. He can be reached at cwinslow@berkeley.edu
Showing posts with label Kaiser permanente workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kaiser permanente workers. Show all posts
Friday, December 9, 2011
SEIU-UHW Field Rep Lisa Cox Shows True Colors by Teaming Up with Kaiser Permanente... Permanently
SEIU-UHW Field Rep Lisa Cox Shows True Colors by Teaming Up with Kaiser Permanente... Permanently
Stern Burger with Fries
November 21, 2011
Ever wonder how deep the collusion is between SEIU and Kaiser Permanente? Well, would it surprise you that SEIU’s Field Reps are taking jobs as Kaiser supervisors… and are now responsible for disciplining SEIU-UHW’s own members?
That’s exactly what happened at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, where workers report that SEIU Field Rep Lisa Cox just became a manager of the hospital’s Environmental Services Department.
Cox is the SEIU-UHW Field Rep who recently teamed up with management to threaten and bully SEIU-UHW’s own members in advance of the giant strike on September 22. Here’s what one worker wrote about Cox:
After talking with co-workers about the strike during a break, I was called into my director's office and was told to stop telling people they have the right to honor NUHW's picket line. She and her managers were telling employees that if they respected the picket line, they’d be considered a "no-show" and would be disciplined. At that point, Lisa Cox (the SEIU Rep) came into her office and told me, in front of my director, that SEIU did not support the strike and would support management's decision to discipline. My manager then said if I was "caught" talking about the strike, she would suspend me.
And it gets worse.
As the Field Rep, Cox was responsible for all of the hospital workers’ grievances and knew all of the intimate details about each worker’s case. By flipping to management, Cox is committing the highly unethical act of basically handing all these confidential details to management so they can screw workers.
Sounds par for the course for SEIU. After all, what can you really expect from Field Reps who're trained by SEIU officials to systematically bully and deceive the union's own members... like they did during last year's Kaiser election and so many others.
Posted by SternBurger
Stern Burger with Fries
November 21, 2011
Ever wonder how deep the collusion is between SEIU and Kaiser Permanente? Well, would it surprise you that SEIU’s Field Reps are taking jobs as Kaiser supervisors… and are now responsible for disciplining SEIU-UHW’s own members?
That’s exactly what happened at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, where workers report that SEIU Field Rep Lisa Cox just became a manager of the hospital’s Environmental Services Department.
Cox is the SEIU-UHW Field Rep who recently teamed up with management to threaten and bully SEIU-UHW’s own members in advance of the giant strike on September 22. Here’s what one worker wrote about Cox:
After talking with co-workers about the strike during a break, I was called into my director's office and was told to stop telling people they have the right to honor NUHW's picket line. She and her managers were telling employees that if they respected the picket line, they’d be considered a "no-show" and would be disciplined. At that point, Lisa Cox (the SEIU Rep) came into her office and told me, in front of my director, that SEIU did not support the strike and would support management's decision to discipline. My manager then said if I was "caught" talking about the strike, she would suspend me.
And it gets worse.
As the Field Rep, Cox was responsible for all of the hospital workers’ grievances and knew all of the intimate details about each worker’s case. By flipping to management, Cox is committing the highly unethical act of basically handing all these confidential details to management so they can screw workers.
Sounds par for the course for SEIU. After all, what can you really expect from Field Reps who're trained by SEIU officials to systematically bully and deceive the union's own members... like they did during last year's Kaiser election and so many others.
Posted by SternBurger
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Kaiser Permanente whistle-blower Emily Ryan from Roseville, California
My name is Emily Ryan. I'm a Courage Campaign member and psychiatric social worker for Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, California. Recently I came forward, along with several colleagues, to blow the whistle on Kaiser's illegal and morally inexcusable mental health policies.
We've risked our careers to contribute to “Care Delayed, Care Denied” a report by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which was featured in USA Today¹ and The Huffington Post.² Now, Kaiser will use its army of lobbyists and PR flacks to try to stop an investigation. This "non-profit" corporation has made more than $5.4 billion in the last three years and pays its CEO a salary of $9 million a year. Unless Governor Brown's Department of Managed Health Care pursues an investigation, Kaiser's billion dollar spin machine will succeed in silencing our voices.
We need your help. Please click here to demand Governor Brown start an investigation.
If you or anyone in your family suffers from mental illness or acute emotional pain, you know how damaging it can be. If they have Kaiser, they're likely to have an experience like Timm Sinclair, who told us,
My mother, a Kaiser member of 20 years, is 77 years old and has Parkinson's. She also suffers from chronic recurrent depression and severe anxiety disorder. The difficulties in getting her psychological and psychiatric needs met at Kaiser have been distressing for her and for me. Along with a revolving cast of doctors and therapists we have encountered lengthy delays of up to three months. I find it inconceivable that an organization that is supposedly dedicated to ensuring that their members 'Thrive' would allow this to happen.
Join us to demand Governor Brown direct the Department of Managed Health Care to investigate Kaiser!
Kaiser puts profits before patients. This year, they raised rates an average of 9.5% and are planning another hike -- their second in six months -- this January, but they refuse to hire enough staff to serve their patients adequately. Our report -- based a survey of over 300 Kaiser mental health professionals practicing at 57 Kaiser facilities in Northern and Southern California -- revealed the following:
• 90% report there is insufficient staffing at their clinic;
• patients, including those suffering from major depression and thoughts of suicide, are frequently forced to wait four weeks or longer for return appointments, despite California law requiring they be seen within ten business days;
• Kaiser falsifies patient scheduling records to conceal these delays from state regulators;
• and Kaiser often funnels patients into group therapy even when clinicians believe that individual therapy would be more effective.
Please ask the Governor to stand up for Timm, his mother, and the thousands of patients who rely on the country's largest HMO for their mental health services.
Emily Ryan
Kaiser Permanente psychiatric social worker and Courage Campaign member
1. USA Today
2. Huffington Post
We've risked our careers to contribute to “Care Delayed, Care Denied” a report by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which was featured in USA Today¹ and The Huffington Post.² Now, Kaiser will use its army of lobbyists and PR flacks to try to stop an investigation. This "non-profit" corporation has made more than $5.4 billion in the last three years and pays its CEO a salary of $9 million a year. Unless Governor Brown's Department of Managed Health Care pursues an investigation, Kaiser's billion dollar spin machine will succeed in silencing our voices.
We need your help. Please click here to demand Governor Brown start an investigation.
If you or anyone in your family suffers from mental illness or acute emotional pain, you know how damaging it can be. If they have Kaiser, they're likely to have an experience like Timm Sinclair, who told us,
My mother, a Kaiser member of 20 years, is 77 years old and has Parkinson's. She also suffers from chronic recurrent depression and severe anxiety disorder. The difficulties in getting her psychological and psychiatric needs met at Kaiser have been distressing for her and for me. Along with a revolving cast of doctors and therapists we have encountered lengthy delays of up to three months. I find it inconceivable that an organization that is supposedly dedicated to ensuring that their members 'Thrive' would allow this to happen.
Join us to demand Governor Brown direct the Department of Managed Health Care to investigate Kaiser!
Kaiser puts profits before patients. This year, they raised rates an average of 9.5% and are planning another hike -- their second in six months -- this January, but they refuse to hire enough staff to serve their patients adequately. Our report -- based a survey of over 300 Kaiser mental health professionals practicing at 57 Kaiser facilities in Northern and Southern California -- revealed the following:
• 90% report there is insufficient staffing at their clinic;
• patients, including those suffering from major depression and thoughts of suicide, are frequently forced to wait four weeks or longer for return appointments, despite California law requiring they be seen within ten business days;
• Kaiser falsifies patient scheduling records to conceal these delays from state regulators;
• and Kaiser often funnels patients into group therapy even when clinicians believe that individual therapy would be more effective.
Please ask the Governor to stand up for Timm, his mother, and the thousands of patients who rely on the country's largest HMO for their mental health services.
Emily Ryan
Kaiser Permanente psychiatric social worker and Courage Campaign member
1. USA Today
2. Huffington Post
Saturday, October 15, 2011
As Kaiser Workers Face Cuts, Execs Have Enjoyed Lavish Benefits
See Kaiser executives.
As Kaiser Workers Face Cuts, Execs Have Enjoyed Lavish Benefits
Dave Jamieson
Huffington Post
7/12/11
Despite strong profits and robust executive compensation at Kaiser Permanente, workers for the Calfornia-based health care giant say they're facing down cuts to their health and retirement benefits in pending contract negotiations.
Proposed cuts include freezing employees' defined-benefit pension plan and switching to a less desirable defined-contribution plan, according to a flier circulated by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Workers are being asked to accept a more costly employee health insurance plan and cuts to their retirement health benefits, the union says.
While those cuts get debated, Kaiser executives have been living well. Pay and perks for high-ranking officials at the nonprofit have been generous in recent years, according to disclosure forms.
In 2009, the most recent year for which figures were available, George Halvorson, the CEO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, received compensation of $6.7 million. Halvorson's package included a $1.2 million payment to his "supplemental non-qualified retirement plan." More than 40 other officers and employees received payments to such retirement stashes -- several of them in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Members of management have also received large "relocation" loans from the nonprofit. Philip Fasano, the chief information officer and vice president, was given such a loan for half a million dollars, according to Kaiser's IRS filings. Disclosure forms with the State of California indicate that two of those relocation loans -- including one for $500,000 -- are forgivable, meaning that the principal of the loan can eventually be forgiven, so long as conditions are met in the short-term. (The state filings do not name the officers who received the forgivable loans.)
John E. Nelson, a Kaiser spokesperson, told HuffPost that the nonprofit's executive compensation is fair and reasonable, given that between its hospital network and health plans Kaiser is "by far the largest and most complex health care organization in the nation."
"Compensation paid to senior management is substantially less than that of many for-profit health plans, and less than would be expected when compared to nonprofit health care companies, once the size and complexity of Kaiser Permanente is taken into account," Nelson wrote in an email. "Kaiser Permanente's senior management have unique leadership positions, in that they have the equivalent of two roles: overseeing a major health plan with 8.8 million members, as well as a total care delivery system in multiple states with 36 hospitals, 450 medical office buildings, and 500 pharmacies."
Kaiser reported a net income of $921 million for the first quarter of 2011. Last month the non-profit announced it would be raising premium rates by about 11 percent on 300,000 Californians enrolled in plans through small businesses -- a hike much smaller than some other insurers have recently implemented, but a hike nonetheless.
Turusew Gedebu-Wilson, a Kaiser dietician who's been involved in the bargaining talks between workers and management, says she finds the prospect of cuts to employee retirement and health benefits "shocking."
"If the organization is making a lot of money, if the executives are making a lot of money, then why do they want to take away so much?" Gedebu-Wilson said. "To tell us that we have to be paying more is really mind-boggling to me."
Nelson would not say whether Kaiser management indeed seeks concessions from workers, noting that the negotiation process is not complete. The nonprofit intends to bargain with workers "in good faith," Nelson said, and it plans on providing "market-competitive" employee benefits to attract the best talent possible. Nelson declined to say whether executives would take cuts to their benefits if employees were asked to do so.
"Kaiser Permanente sets senior management compensation levels so that the organization can successfully attract and retain the leadership it needs to deliver affordable, high quality health care," Nelson said.
As Kaiser Workers Face Cuts, Execs Have Enjoyed Lavish Benefits
Dave Jamieson
Huffington Post
7/12/11
Despite strong profits and robust executive compensation at Kaiser Permanente, workers for the Calfornia-based health care giant say they're facing down cuts to their health and retirement benefits in pending contract negotiations.
Proposed cuts include freezing employees' defined-benefit pension plan and switching to a less desirable defined-contribution plan, according to a flier circulated by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Workers are being asked to accept a more costly employee health insurance plan and cuts to their retirement health benefits, the union says.
While those cuts get debated, Kaiser executives have been living well. Pay and perks for high-ranking officials at the nonprofit have been generous in recent years, according to disclosure forms.
In 2009, the most recent year for which figures were available, George Halvorson, the CEO for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, received compensation of $6.7 million. Halvorson's package included a $1.2 million payment to his "supplemental non-qualified retirement plan." More than 40 other officers and employees received payments to such retirement stashes -- several of them in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Members of management have also received large "relocation" loans from the nonprofit. Philip Fasano, the chief information officer and vice president, was given such a loan for half a million dollars, according to Kaiser's IRS filings. Disclosure forms with the State of California indicate that two of those relocation loans -- including one for $500,000 -- are forgivable, meaning that the principal of the loan can eventually be forgiven, so long as conditions are met in the short-term. (The state filings do not name the officers who received the forgivable loans.)
John E. Nelson, a Kaiser spokesperson, told HuffPost that the nonprofit's executive compensation is fair and reasonable, given that between its hospital network and health plans Kaiser is "by far the largest and most complex health care organization in the nation."
"Compensation paid to senior management is substantially less than that of many for-profit health plans, and less than would be expected when compared to nonprofit health care companies, once the size and complexity of Kaiser Permanente is taken into account," Nelson wrote in an email. "Kaiser Permanente's senior management have unique leadership positions, in that they have the equivalent of two roles: overseeing a major health plan with 8.8 million members, as well as a total care delivery system in multiple states with 36 hospitals, 450 medical office buildings, and 500 pharmacies."
Kaiser reported a net income of $921 million for the first quarter of 2011. Last month the non-profit announced it would be raising premium rates by about 11 percent on 300,000 Californians enrolled in plans through small businesses -- a hike much smaller than some other insurers have recently implemented, but a hike nonetheless.
Turusew Gedebu-Wilson, a Kaiser dietician who's been involved in the bargaining talks between workers and management, says she finds the prospect of cuts to employee retirement and health benefits "shocking."
"If the organization is making a lot of money, if the executives are making a lot of money, then why do they want to take away so much?" Gedebu-Wilson said. "To tell us that we have to be paying more is really mind-boggling to me."
Nelson would not say whether Kaiser management indeed seeks concessions from workers, noting that the negotiation process is not complete. The nonprofit intends to bargain with workers "in good faith," Nelson said, and it plans on providing "market-competitive" employee benefits to attract the best talent possible. Nelson declined to say whether executives would take cuts to their benefits if employees were asked to do so.
"Kaiser Permanente sets senior management compensation levels so that the organization can successfully attract and retain the leadership it needs to deliver affordable, high quality health care," Nelson said.
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